Voice Testing Post

[use_everything]

Canon

A.

[You may find yourself facing large, heavy gates. Behind the bars, you can easily see the enormous, austere residence spread both tall and wide against a backdrop of a lake, stables and a small, private cemetery. The unbridled horse grazing, unhitched beside a carriage, by a liveried servant is in direct opposition to an obviously futuristic lightflier not far from it.

Even the guard that narrows to nervous attention holds both a sword and a strange, small device.]

And you are?

[The voice comes from behind.

Aral, for his part, neither looks, nor feels the part of the lord. Having taken the long way, treacherous and unmonitored paths and foothills back to the residence, he smells of sap, a chemical tinge of smoke and the exertion it took to get back. His green dress uniform had survived in all but the pressed edges, looking as if he'd intended the slight look of disarray and set jaw.

He lifts a hand, stilling the guard from comment on him, and focuses all of his attention on this newcomer.]

B.

[The Counts and Minsters poured out of the building first. The debates of the evening being traded in words so sharp that they might as well have been blows. Aral followed much more sedately, having taken a bit of time to brief his intelligence officer and leave orders for the evening.

It's by chance he stumbled across a stranger, enough out of place to inspire both caution and curiosity in equal measures.]

You seem lost.

Mask or Menace

C.

[It helped to liken the city to a space station. It had the bustle of a large hub.. the rowdy clash and wild fusion of fashions and cultures that defied any easy identification of a trend or perhaps some anthropological hint as to the people - and species... intelligent and alien, the very thought sent his mind into fits of fantasy and planning at once. It was like water, as far as he could tell. Formless, impossible to grip, but could fill the air around you and sweep one far away should he let it. There were colors and layers fitting the ghem Cetagandan... lack of modesty known to the Betans... the maliable gathering of anything adorned by a Jacksonian mindset...

And yet, nothing that fit anything else.

There was only one way to begin. Diplomatically.]

Might I ask a question?

OTHER

[Pick your poison, or let me know and I'll cater a starter to you.]

Comments

[rathercommon]

[ A nod. Lines up with what Greg had told her. Okay. So he's not lying about this... ]

That must have had enormous effects on your culture. I can only imagine how strange it must have been when you reestablished contact.

[use_everything]

Quite enormous. Without fuel, replacement parts, the ability to make polymers or alloys, electronics, and even in the beginning simple forging... the Firsters were forced to reinvent civilization and technology as everything they had come with decayed and fell away.

Eighty years ago, we made contact again. In my childhood, I knew of people who still remembered what it was to think of the first settlers as a myth and contact as a pipe dream. Of course, by contact, were summarily invaded by an Empire who spends more on a single state event than we have in our entire global budget.


Which brings me to the answer at last: we have highly advanced technology in defense, transportation and the medicine associated therewith. Everything that is not a necessity is a luxury, and its representation reflects it.

[rathercommon]

What are your politics like?

[ Her gaze is steady. The attempt to look airheaded is completely forgotten; she's too interested in what he's saying. ]

[use_everything]

Hm.

[He takes another brief sip of his coffee, evaluating her over the lip of it.

Indulge my curiosity - what would you imagine it to be, with what you just heard?

[rathercommon]

Well -

[ Her lie is smooth. ]

I imagine it'd be the government of the people who settled your planet, right? So probably a democracy.

[use_everything]

Really.

[And here is where It Beings.]

I'm fairly certain democracy qualifies as a luxury of those with plenty.

[rathercommon]

[ And her eyes narrow very slightly. ]

I'm fairly certain that your governmental system isn't dependent on your level of resources.

[use_everything]

[He raises his eyebrows, expression mild and doubtful.]

What do you suppose it depends on?

[rathercommon]

Historical circumstances, for the most part.

[ She crosses her arms. ]

We've got a democracy here not because of any inherent characteristics of this country, but because people, in the past, put it in place.

[use_everything]

That seems ... simplified.

[It's pronounced in a way to make it a synonym of "naive."]

[rathercommon]

[ Oh. Her chin snaps up. And her eyes narrow. She looks suddenly rather dangerous. ]

Does it, now. Which you can judge thanks to all your experience with democracies, can you?

[use_everything]

[He lifts his cup, as if acknowledging a point.]

As you judge from what seems to be your vast experience outside of one.

Without the infrastructure of communication technology, lack of an entrenched ruling class and an educated or even existing middle class... I would only imagine a quick, violent breakdown and recentralization of power.

Regardless of who, in the past, put it in place.

[rathercommon]

[ And her eyes narrow even further. ]

Oh, really. And why is that? Is it the middle class alone who gets to involve in representative democracy? I'm fairly certain that the lower classes can cast rational votes as well.

[use_everything]

[He stifles a sigh before it escapes. It was like talking to a Betan.]

Tell me, Miss Jones, what percentage of your world's lower classes are literate?

[rathercommon]

There's no survey been done, but -

[ She thinks about the people she knows, tries to measure it out. About a third of her class in school got taught to read, the higher-achieving students, and when you figure that against the number of people who didn't go to school at all... ]

Twenty percent. Perhaps. A bit less.

[use_everything]

[The dismissive air lifts slightly and his regard turns keen.]

And you've a representative democracy there? Government appointment?

[rathercommon]

Well...

[ She could just lie. But - ]

No. But we did have one, once upon a time. Before the current...militaristic oligarchy, I suppose, would be the best way to describe our system now.

[use_everything]

You seek to change it, then? You seem to carry that passion.

[rathercommon]

Too right I do. I've been working to restore the old Parliament and democracy for years. Since I was a girl.

[use_everything]

A military oligarchy is not particularly easy to unseat or even change from the outside.

Your progress this far, if I might inquire?

[rathercommon]

...I have it on good authority that we end up succeeding.

[use_everything]

So, it happened without you?

[rathercommon]

Not exactly. It's more that it will happen. [ Then, before he can question that - ] One of the many weird things that goes on here is time travel. Someone I know is from my future and told me about it.

[use_everything]

Hm. [Aral sits back at that. His arms fold and face pinches in thought. Good sense would deny it, but where did such a thing live in a place like this? In the end, he says nothing at all to that.]

[rathercommon]

[ What - that's all she gets? No exclamations of disbelief? No cool-headed acceptance followed by a continuation of their conversation? Just hm?

Eurgh, fine. ]

Anyway. So democracy does have the potential to work even in a world like mine, where our rates of literacy are very low. Where education has been deliberately sabotaged. And that's amongst the urban population, too - who even knows what it's like out in the country.